Radiation measurement devices may be used for a variety of measurement services, e.g. analyzing gas species present in a target atmosphere such as for pollution studies, volcano studies, and the like.
Currently, many such devices are either cumbersome to use, given their size and/or weight, or do no provide real time measurements of one or more gas species of interest. Some devices, e.g. an ultraviolet correlation spectrometer developed by Baringer Research of Canada, have been around since the 1960s. Such real time measurements are of interest to remote data gathering. Portability, i.e. the ability to be carried by a single human, is also of interest to remote data gathering such as at remote volcanic and/or oceanic sites.
These devices are typically large, heavy, and expensive instruments, not well suited for deployment in often rugged field environments such as around active volcanoes.